Wrapper feed for wrapping machines



Sept. 28, 1943.- w', H PP:

' WRAPPER FEED FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed March 13, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheetl INVENTOR +7111, ATTORNEYS Sept. 28, 1943. w. HOPPE 2,330,715

WRAPPER FEEDFOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed March 15, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet 2I I CI INVENTOR MA MA M HOPP ATTORNEYS Sept. 28, 1943. w. HOPPE vWRAPPER FEED FOR WRAPPING MACHINES Filed March 15, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet sINVENTOR Mum/v HOPP ATTOR f/M NEYS 4 Sept. 28, 1943. w HOPPE WRAPPERFEED FOR WRAPPING MAQHINES4 Filed March 13, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet 4INVENTOR MZZ/A/VfiQJPPE BY M M ATTORNEYS Sept. 28, 19431 w. HOPPE2,330,715

WRAPPER FEED FOR WRAPPING MACHINES 'Filea March 13, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet5 INVENTOR Mumufi pc Wm M ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 28, 1943 N 1 T E 2times PATEN T m CE h i WaArrsara-nn F33: 2:13a mNES William Hoppe,Longmea'dow, Mass, assignor to NationalBread Wrapping Machine'Co.,Springfield, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts. ApplicationlliarchlS,1942, Serial No. 434,486

6 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in the handling and feeding ofwrapper webs inmachines of the general typeshown in my prior Patent2,273,961, granted February 24, 19.42. In

It of a carrier or elevator l'land then will remain imposition to serveas a side guide as the carrier rises. The carrier is moved vertically byany suitable mechanism, such for example as that machine the web was.fed positively bya pair is shown in the Smith & Hoppe Patent 1,953,195,I of continuously rotating rolls which stayed-in April '3, 1934. Theelevator reciproeates up and feeding contact only so long as wasnecessary to down between the horizontal end or plate 12, deliver alength of. Web sufficient to make the which formsa loading station, anda plate 18 desired initial contact with the article, the rolls whichforms the floor of a wrapping or delivery being thereafter separated to.feed the web as 10 channel. The elevator has side tuckers I9, and themovement of'the article caused the leading the delivery channel has top,end and bottom edge of the web to be pulled against one or the folders29, 2|, and22. All of these folders may other of them under tension. 7be of any well known or desired construction,

While that device proved itself eminently and since their detail formsno part of the pressatisfactory, particularly for high speed macntinvention they are not further described. chines, it has proveddesirable to improve upon The wrapper web 10 is led from a suitable itin the matter of simplicity and expense for source (not shown) over afloatingtake-up and use in other types of wrapping machines, suchtension roll 25, having associated guide rolls 26 as machines where lowspeed is not objectionand2l'. From the roll 21 the web passes overa ableor machines in which a dififerent type of plate 23 and under a webretainer- 29 which article carrier is used. In the feeding mechdrags onthe web and prevents retrograde moveanism shown in the cited patent somemechament. The feed. ro1ls3il, 3| are situated at the nism was necessaryto prevent the actionof end of the plate 28, are geared together at 32the feed rolls in case no articlegwas presented for '(Fig. 10) and aredriven continuously from any wrapping. In the present construction nosuch desired source of power by a sprocket and chain mechanism isrequired, since the rolls are fixed 33. In distinction from the actionof the rolls at a constant distance apart and only feedthe in Patent2,273,961, the rolls 3B, 3 a e p s t oned web when the movement of thearticle causes a a constant distance ap and are p e y pull on it, glocated with their axes on a line substantially 'at The invention willnow be described with refer- 3g; right angles to the path of travel ofthe elevator. ence to the accompanying drawings, in which Since therolls are never in contact they cannot Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section,partly diagramfeed the web forwardly if its free end is merely matic,through a wrapping machine embodying hanging between them as'in Figs. 5and 6, the the invention; cooperation of the wrapping mechanism and ofFigs. 2 to 6 inclusive are details showing, stages the t cle it f beingeq ed to tens on the of the operation of the mechanism succeeding Webaround the rollers in a sinuous path as in that shown in Fig. 1; Figslto 4 in order to cause the web to be fed Fig. 7 is a similar detailshowing the adjust- Out y frictional ont ct. ment of the mechanism foran article of relative The course of thewrapping operationcan best lysmall size; i 40 be treated by considering the wrapper as being Fig. 8is a detail of the mechanism for controlinitially in t p i o of 6. Thearticle a ling the length of the first bottom underlap Will be moved bythe pusher 15 into contact with taken on line 8--8 of Fig. 9; the webjust back of its leading end, and will Fig. 9 is an enlarged sideelevation thereof; pass with the web onto the elevator plate i6 and 10is g ,11 of t feed 11 drive; and between the tuckers IS. The motion ofthe push Fig. 11 is a detail of the infeed conveyor. er I5 continues,and since the web is, firmly .an- The Wrapping machine comprises aninfeed chored to the article by being foldedagainst its conveyor (Figs.1 and 11) having a base plate bottom and sides the wrapper will betensioned [2, preferably inclined upwardly with a horiaround they feedrolls 3!], 3| as in Fig. 1. As long zontal end, through slots in whichlugs. l3 of a as this tension is maintained the rolls will feed chain l4pass. The lugs carry pushers IE to conthe web by friction, but it isimpossible to feed tact. the rear face of the articles, the chain outtoo much since the slightest tendency to form being drivenintermittently by any suitable slack would cause the feed to stop. Itshould mechanism so that the pushers will advance sucbe. noted that atall times during the upward cessively to p ace an article upon the .baseplate movement of the elevator the webpasses through the rolls in asinuous path which prevents sideslip even though there may be a slightslackening of the web as the elevator carries the top of the articlefrom the position of Fig. 1 past the feed rolls, and insures a good gripon the web in all positions of the carrier.

Since in the present case the rolls are incapable of feeding out theinitial length of web shown in Fig. 5, as was the case in Patent2,273,961, the elevator is given a nearly suflicient stroke to draw outa length of web to suit the smallest size of package which it is thepurpose of the machine to wrap. The wrapper is cut off from the web onlyafter the circumferential wrap is practically complete as in Figs. 4 and'7; a sta-f tionary cutter blade being located on the elevator and amovable bifurcated cutter blade 36 being carried by arms 37 (Fig. l)fixed to a shaft 38 and actuated by a link 39 from a pivoted arm 40carrying a roll 4| held against a cam 42 on a shaft 43 by a spring 44.The shaft 43 may also drive the feed roll chain 33 by a sprocket andgear connection 45. As the elevator ascends the travel of the article tothe position of Fig. 7 will cause the wrapper to be tensioned againstthe feed rolls 39, 3t and to be fed out by friction. Whenthe position ofFig. '7 is reached the wrapper will be severed by the action of thecutter, and the severed front end of the web will swing down across thepath of the advancing article as shown in Fig. 5.

The length thus fed out will be sufficient to cover the front and asmuch as required of the bottom of a loaf of the smallest size. Forlarger articles, however, this will not be enough; since irrespective ofthe size of the article the length of web above the cutters issubstantially constant, as will be seen from a comparison of Figs. 4 and7. It is the length of wrapper above the cutters that controls thelength of the second flap folded onto the article bottom, and the lengthof wrapper belowthe cutters that controls the length of the first flap.Since the first length is substantially constant it is necessary, inorder to control the overlapping of the two flaps, to vary the length ofthe wrapper between the feed rolls and the cutter at the time ofcutting. This is done by a roll carried by swinging arms 5| and movableperiodically from the rest position of Fig. 1 to a variableweb-deflecting position, one example of which is shown in Fig. 4 Thearms 5! are secured to a shaft 52 bearing an arm 53 (Fig. 8) joined by alink 54 to a bell crank 55 pivoted on a stud 56 and having on one arm aroll 5! running in a groove 58 formed in a cam 59 on shaft 43. Thesecond arm of the bell crank has a slot 60 in which is an adjustablepivot 6| for the link 54. The bell crank is preferably offset from itspivot stud 56 as shown in Fig. 9 in order to permit the slot to extendpast it, so that the pivot may be adjusted to'a position where no motionwill be given to the roll 59 as is desirable for packages of the minimumsize. For packages of other sizes the motion of roll 50 may be adjustedby varying the position of the control pivot 6!. The motion can thus becontrolled so that a relatively large amount of deflection can be givento the web as in Fig, 4 or no deflection at all as in Fig. 7. If desiredan articleand wrapper guide 52 may be carried by arms 5!.

The completion of the circumferential Wrapping operation may beaccomplished in any desired way. As shown, the elevator is provided witha freely rotatable roll '63 which, when the elevator is in its upperposition, abuts a roll 64 adjacent the entrance to the dischargechannel. The roll 64 may be freely running, held by a brake, orpositively driven as is well understood in order to control the tensionof the wrapper as the latter is drawn between rolls 63, 64 as thearticle is fed into the delivery channelby the usual pusher 65,

WhatI claim is:

1. A wrapping machine having a carrier movable between loading anddischarge stations, a pair of friction rolls permanently spaced fromeach other and located between the stations at one side of the path ofthe carrier, means for rotating the rolls in opposite directions wherebya web passing between the rolls and held between an article and thecarrier will be fed out by friction as required by the motion of thearticle and carrier, and means for severing the web between said rollsand carrier, the rolls and the severing means being separated apart adistance sufficient to provide a sufficient amount of web projectingbeyond the rolls at the instant of severance for contact with the nextsucceeding article without further feeding out of the web.

2. A wrapping machine having a carrier movable between loading anddischarge stations, a pair of friction rolls permanently spaced fromeach other and located between the stations at one side of the path ofthe carrier, means for rotating the rolls continuously in oppositedirections whereby a web passing between the rolls and held between anarticle and the carrier will be fed out by friction as required by themotion of the article and carrier, means for severing the web betweenthe rolls and the carrier, and mechanism for deflecting the web betweenthe rolls and the severing means, the rolls and the severing means beingspaced apart a distance sufficient to provide a sufficient amount of webprojecting beyond the rolls at the instant of severance of saiddeflected web for contact with the next succeeding article withoutfurther feeding out of the web.

3. A wrapping machine having a carrier movable between loading anddischarge stations, a pair of friction rolls permanently spaced fromeach other and located between the stations at one-side of the path ofthe carrier and with the line of their axes substantially parallel tosaid path, means for rotating the rolls in opposite directions whereby aweb passing between the rolls and held between an article and thecarrier will be fed out by friction as required by the motion of thearticle and carrier, and means for severing the web between said rollsand carrier, the rolls and the severing means being spaced apart adistance suflicient to provide a sufficient amount of web projectingbeyond the rolls at the instant of severance for contact with the nextsucceeding article without further feeding out of the web.

4. A wrapping machine having a carrier movable between loading anddischarge stations, a pair of friction rolls permanently spaced fromeach other and located between the stations at one side of the path ofthe carrier and with the line of their axes substantially parallel tosaid path, means for rotating the rolls continuously in oppositedirections whereby a web passing between the rolls and held between anarticle and the carrier will be fed out by friction as required by themotion of the article and carrier, means for severing the webbetween therolls and the carrier, andmechanism for deflecting the web between therolls and the severing means, the

rolls and the severing means being spaced apart a distance suflicient toprovide a suflicient amount of web projecting beyond the rolls at theinstant ofrseverance of said deflected web for contact with the nextsucceeding article without further feeding out of the web.

5. In a wrapping machine of the type having a vertically movablecarrier, means for moving the carrier back and forth between a loadingstation and a discharge station, and means for feeding articles on toand off from the carrier, a pair of web feeding rolls continuouslydriven in opposite directions positioned between the stations with theirsurfaces permanently out of contact, means for directing a web to therolls, a web retainer for preventing retrograde motion of the web, acutter blade on the elevator, a cutter movable into'cutting relationwith said blade when the carrier is at the discharge position, a webdeflectin g roll between the feed rolls and the movable cutter,andadjustable mechanism for moving the 6. In a wrapping machine of thetype having a vertically movable carrier, means for moving the carrierback and forth between a loading station and a discharge station, andmeans for feeding articles onto and off from the carrier, a pair of webfeeding rolls continuously driven in opposite directions positionedbetween the stations with their surfaces permanently out of contact andwith the line of their axes substantially at right angles to the path ofmotion of the carrier, means for directing a web to the rolls, a webretainer for preventing retrograde motion of the web, a cutter blade onthe elevator, a cutter movable into cutting relation with said bladewhen the carrier is at the discharge position, a web deflecting rollbetween the feed rolls and the deflecting roll underneath the carrierprior to the 1 cutting operation.

movable cutter, and adjustable mechanism for moving the deflecting rollunderneath the carrier prior to the cutting operation.

WILLIAM HOPPE.

